International is Saint Etienne’s 13th album. It is their last. According to the promotional material, it was written while recording their last album, 2021’s I’ve Been Trying To Tell You. The trio – Sarah Cracknell, Bob Stanley, Pete Wiggs – must have known back then they were planning to bow out.
Where I’ve Been Trying To Tell You was blurred, gauzy, low to mid-tempo and impressionistic, its counterpart is often up-tempo and avowedly poppy. Both albums, though, are shot-through with reflectiveness and melancholy. Underlining this, Cracknell ambivalently declares “looking back I could be worse, I could be better too” during “Brand New me.” “The Last Time,” the final track, finds her musing “now I’m really glad we made the trip…30 odd years later…we’re not the dandy highwaymen you might expect to find.” I’ve Been Trying To Tell You was about a half-remembered past. International, with the three interlocking geometric images on its cover representing each member of the trio, is about considering an actual past.
Intentionally creating a farewell statement and rendering it as a form of concept album has involved touching on many aspects of Saint Etienne’s past. The spoken snippets between tracks are a familiar marque. Echoes of past highlights such as “Nothing Can Stop us” are here. The fantastic opener “Glad” hybridises multiple former Saint Etiennes. The pop-cultural references aren’t limited to home turf: one song is titled “The Go-Betweens.” Other titles refer to Dusty Springfield (“Brand New me”), Elton John (“Take me to the Pilot”) and Mary Wells (“Two Lovers”). There’s even an Emerson, Lake & Palmer allusion. “Save it For a Rainy Day” might nod to Jan and Dean’s 1966 concept album Save For A Rainy Day but rather than The Rolling Stones, “The Last Time” doubtless concerns matters at hand. As well as the citations, a dizzying selection of co-songwriters, co-producers and guest performers clutter-up the credits: amongst them Erol Alkan, Augustin Bousfield, Flash Cassette, Caroline Catz, Vince Clarke, Paul Hartnoll (Orbital), Nick Heyward, Janet Planet (Confidence Man), Tim Powell (Xenomania), Tom Rowlands (Chemical Brothers), Jez Williams (Doves). The album has sleevenotes by Jonathan Meades.
Everything above is unignorable, unavoidable. But ultimately, it's static which has to be tuned out. The bottom line is that this cohesive, dignified collection is a Saint Etienne album. It sounds like one; is one. And, it’s one of their most self-possessed. An unalloyed winner. International is the definition of going out on a high.
